Thursday, November 17, 2011

Slap tear history


I thought I would update my log with a post regarding my Shoulder problems in the past.

I guess I will make this a long post, so I will start at the beginning.  I started training (lifting) when I was 14.  (Before then, I was a AAA hockey player, and even after)  When I was 13 I fractured my jaw in 2 places from a slapshot and was forced to stop playing and do nothing for 6 months.  So I dropped a lot of weight while recovering and bottomed out at 110lbs, 5'6", 13.8 years.  Over the next year, I went on a mission to put weight on and then some.  I finished my serious bulking phase at 160, 5'8" at 15.5 years.  I guess it probably all started there, where I didn't do a lot of shoulder, lat, rhomboid work.  Right as I turned 16 I felt the first pains of what I came to know as my messed up shoulders.

It felt like someone was stabbing Anterior muscle fibers of my shoulder.  After 3 years of procrastination and pushing-through-it-ness.  I called it a done deal and got into the doc to check it out.  I got MRI's, and X-rays on both shoulders.  At first they told me I had severe arthritis.  But after getting the MRIs they told me I had a SLAP tear.  Or a tear/lesion of the Labrum in my shoulder.  I had the choice of surgery and 6 months out, or Physical Therapy and 2 months out (with obvious uncertainty if it would be 100%).  Since I was still playing hockey (Junior A), I felt that it would be wise just to do PT and see how it went.

It went well (started in March 15 of 2011, ended in June 1 of 2011), going 3 times/week.  I would say the pain went away about 50% of the time, and strength was increased by 50% in the surrounding muscles.  I stopped my PT and went to my summer training camp (5 days/week of training for 12 weeks) where I didn't do any PT work.  I think I learned a lot on how to apply moist heat pre-workout and ice afterwards.  Which definitely has helped me manage the problems.  I left my hockey team at the end of September for pressure and political reasons, at which time meant that I wanted to start my bulking phase again and my PT routine.

I started back to Hardcore bulking on October 1st, doing a 3 day on 2 day off routine of Chest/Tris - Back - Bi's/Forearms - Legs - Shoulders/Traps - Abs/Forearms.  I am trying to get back to my PT Routine, but it's not easy, I usually don't want to do anything after my main workout (too drained and sore).  But, I would say I have started doing the PT stuff once or twice a week.

11/17-11/20 I am still under deload so I will try and post about things that matter to my story before getting into a daily workout log mainly starting on the 21st.

Tomorrow I will post my thoughts on my nutrition plan.  If I go to the gym tomorrow (it kills me to be on a deload and do nothing), I might do just Abs and rip them up, but not sure if I should just wait until monday.

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